China (Part 3)

We left Beijing by plane for Xian. I should comment here that every flight we were on (with one exception, which I shall tell you about later) left the ground (not the gate) at the advertised time - most impressive. We visited the Great Mosque - our guide had been raised in the muslim quarter.


Then on to the highlight - the Terracotta Warriors. There were 3 air-conditioned buildings, the main pit (below) and two others where work is still going on, so that we saw all stages of the archeological site: reconstructed warriors, pieces of warriors in situ, as found, the reconstruction site where the warriors are painstakingly reconstructed, and pits still to be excavated. Originally these warriors would have been very colourful.

Above is a postcard showing the inside of one of the buildings erected over them; no photographs were allowed. The scale is breathtaking.

This shows one of the warriors in detail. Every warrior is supposed to be different.

Above is a picture of the farmer who discovered the pit with the terracotta warriors signing a copy of the book about the site for us.

You may (or may not) be surprised to know that, if you see someone else's photograph of the farmer who found the pit signing a copy of a book for them, the farmer looks quite different! Of course we knew this would be the case, but enjoyed doing it anyway.